I know, you don't want to pay the fee the real estate agency charges to handle your rental. Bad tenants are plentiful enough without adding an additional expense to the bottom line.
Even so, there are some compelling reasons to use a real estate specialist to rent your unit. First of all, they will market the property, handle showings, pre-screen and pre-qualify potential renters, and handle the paperwork for you. That in itself is a tremendous time-saver.
The second reason is that you are a bit more likely to get a tenant that is less likely to give you problems. Why?
Well, if your real estate agent is a professional, they won't be burning up their time and gas showing your property to prospects that they haven't pre-qualified. Just the process of requiring a potential renter to come into their office to complete an application and have a credit check done BEFORE looking at properties weeds out a lot of the unqualified tenants.
In fact, renters that KNOW they have poor payment history or credit problems will often focus exclusively on the "FOR RENT by Owner" when looking for a new place to live. They believe they can successfully bamboozle convince the owner that they are a better risk than the factual information on their application and credit check reveals.
Because of this, it's important to have some set guidelines for screening rental applicants.
Here are my "7 Rules for Rentals"
1. Before we look at any rental properties, you must come to my office for a personal meeting and to fill out state required forms for representation.
2. Application and Credit Check required. Application fee payable by cash or money order.
3. Proof of Sufficient Income (3x monthly rental amount)
4. You must have one month's security deposit, first and last month's rent in hand at time of application.
5. No drug arrests. Ever.
6. No evictions or bankruptcy in last three years.
7. Section 8 must provide proper documentation BEFORE we look at properties.
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